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“Gotta say, can’t wait to get to the hotel tonight,” he whispers.

My stomach immediately warms, just like it did all those years ago.

“Oh, yeah?” I ask him.

“Mmhm. And break in that bed.” He squeezes my hand.

I try to ignore my flushing face and brush my thumb against his hand. “Maybe we can sneak out of here early.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he teases.

I lean in and kiss him again, but the kiss is broken when my father swears in frustration at a bad move in pool and the other players start laughing. I look over with a chuckle.

“Why aren’t you in on that?” I ask Dante.

“Oh, no. Last time I broke a pool stick,” he reminds me.

I blink. “Right. We still need to buy them a new one.” I chuckle. “You were pretty drunk that night, though.”

“You wanna take that chance?” he asks.

I shake my head. “It was amusing…oh, and speaking of amusing, Nathan and Lena invited us to a get together for their first wedding anniversary.”

“What’s amusing about that?” He raises a brow.

“I wasn’t finished!” I laugh. “It’s at an amusement park.”

“Oh. When is it? I might be able to get time off,” he replies. “Though, I already took time off for Tessa and Yvette’s adoption party.”

I sigh and pat my pocket. “Damn, my phone is upstairs. I don’t remember exactly; I’ll have to check later. We should head back up, anyway.”

“Alright. I could use another slice of pie.” Dante pushes away from the wall, but keeps his hand in mine.

I smile, kind of star-struck by how cute he looks in his Christmas sweater, with his dark hair all frizzy and hanging over his forehead. I follow him upstairs, holding his hand the whole way.

“My phone’s in the living room.”

As I’m talking, my mom walks into the kitchen. Dante lets go of my hand to get more pie.

“Oh, you found him,” my mother says with a smile. “Did you get the whipped cream?”

I stare at her, realizing that this perfect moment is missing just one tiny detail.

“Ah, shit.”